Kati & Michael's Graduation Adventure

5/20/2002

The weather has been quite unpredictable lately. As I walked along Brighton Avenue the other day with Kati, she made this observation:

"Elizabeth, I can see my breath."

"Yeah, it's cold."

"It's May."

"Yeah, Boston is heaven, and I love living here, but the weather is ass."

About an hour later Michael was with us as we walked to the T.

"Elizabeth?"

"Yeah?"

"I can see my breath. It's May."

"So Kati observed earlier."

"That's just so wrong."

Kati and Michael came up to visit me this week, and we had a good visit. It was the first time I had a chance to hang out with just them since their wedding almost a year ago. I missed that wedding because I'm too poor to run back South whenever I'd like.

Like when my friends get married, like when my youngest sister is sick with strep, like when my other sister gets in trouble at High School, like when one of my best friends sits days in the hospital waiting for his mother to come out of a diabetic coma, like when my uncle has open heart surgery, like when all the bad things that have been happening lately happen - including bad days I have up here...

This week was my graduation, to which I also did not go, because after living here in Boston for almost two years, it turns out I'm too poor to even attend my own formal ceremony. Oh well. I was never a big fan of large formal ceremonies anyway. I had a great time Sunday just hanging out with Kati and Michael. There were fresh hot donuts for breakfast, and then we took a picnic lunch to the Boston Public Garden. There with all the beautiful flowers and trees we sat by the duck pond, watching the Swan Boats paddle by. Kati and I wrote a short story in rounds. We pretended to shop for souvenirs at Cheers, just so we could use their bathroom. Pretending to shop at Cheers so we can use the bathroom is becoming a standard stop on the Elizabeth tour of Boston.

Later we went and bought book making supplies in Cambridge and had tea. I took Friday off and we had tea then too, and it was delightful. 4 o'clock, time to sit down for a bit and have a snack and something warm to drink. Yea! That's luxury to me: time for friends and a little sweet something and quiet conversation. Michael, who is quite the punk, was even converted to the practice I think, though he was mainlining coffee often instead of tea. On the walk back from Central square to Allston, we waded through the crowd of B.U. graduates in their bright red robes, looking like happy people-sized cardinals. It was a neat sight to see.

I hope Kati and Michael had a good time here; I think they did. It was good to have them, and I'm glad somebody was here for my graduation, even if I didn't end up walking the stage.

Aral and Tasha graduated too last weekend, and they didn't walk either. Instead they slept in, and later in the day Tasha came over to our house and got drunk with Aral. There we all were: drunken graduates - Tasha and Aral with their MA's in Gender Studies, Kati with her spankin' new psychology BA from MTSU and me, the MLIS, the one who was supposed to have picked the most practical degree. Mostly I just use it to get sloshed with my friends on a Sunday night. Yea! The only ones of us with a really good jobs right now are Tasha, who has worked for the same place for a few years now, and of course Michael, who manages a fast food place back in Murfreesboro and makes quite a bit of dough. Kati is looking for something to do this summer, but has a job in Egypt in the fall.

Aral and I? We're both soon gonna be unemployed drunks who can critique movies and television with the best pop-culture theory you can find.

Also, we're good cooks and decent hosts. Lots of guests are scheduled with us in the coming weeks, so at least we've got friends on the way. What good is being drunk and unemployed in Allston unless you've got witnesses?